


Flying The Nest

by ihaveacleverfandomurl



Series: Tumblr Oneshot Prompts [2]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Angst, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Kevin and Andrew escape the Nest together, M/M, Raven Andrew Minyard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:27:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22570975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihaveacleverfandomurl/pseuds/ihaveacleverfandomurl
Summary: Raven Andrew and Kevin escape Evermore's Nest when Riko decides to break Kevin's hand and Andrew's ribs. Later, Kevin wonders to the mouth of a vodka bottle if he is broken beyond repair. But when the Ravens transfer districts, Andrew makes Kevin another promise.Kevin thinks maybe he can make it through the game against Evermore. Maybe he can even figure out what to offer Andrew in return for that promise.
Relationships: Kevin Day/Andrew Minyard
Series: Tumblr Oneshot Prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624054
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I moved this from a single listing under my tumblr oneshot prompts because I love it so much and it's grown to sEVERAL oneshot chapters, so have an actual fic, comprised of moments in Raven!Kandrew's relationship. We have one more chapter comin up soon bc somebody else dropped a nice prompt in my askbox on tumblr so keep an eye out 😘  
> (The prompts being sent can be found [from some of these prompt lists](https://foxy-exy.tumblr.com/tagged/prompts)! Feel free to send me more aftg prompts or any requests [on tumblr](https://foxy-exy.tumblr.com/)!)  
> -  
> tw: abuse, violence, injuries, past abuse discussion throughout fic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Prompt](https://foxy-exy.tumblr.com/post/188707198393/otherwise-stoic-character-flinching-either): "otherwise stoic character flinching, either because they’re so out of it or the pain is Just That Bad (Kevin and Andrew 😏)" by anonymous!

Kevin can count the amount of times he has seen Andrew as anything other than hyper-alert and vigilant on one hand.

Haha. One hand. One broken, bloodied hand. He can barely hold down the hysterical bubbling of laughter in his chest as he _doesn’t_ look at his ruined fingers hanging limp and useless, at the _bone_ poking through the skin, tries to stare only at the small man leading him onward with a death grip on Kevin’s sleeve.

Andrew is panting, his shoulders hunched, his free arm wrapped around his middle. He is weaving, a little, and the giant gash on the back of his head is still bleeding freely.

Riko had shown no mercy to either of them. Kevin, for daring to shine. And Andrew, for launching himself on Riko the second Kevin’s hand had made that terrible, terrible _crunch_ beneath Riko’s heel.

Andrew did not have a weapon on him when Riko whirled on him, yanking the giant lamp from the bedside table to shatter it over Andrew’s head, to continue swinging when Andrew took blow after blow, until he finally fell.

Riko had spat at Kevin’s feet then, and left them to their pain. Kevin, huddled over his hand, had dragged himself closer to an unmoving Andrew, crawling. He could barely breathe a quiet, “Andrew?”

Andrew twitched, grimaced, half opened his eyes. They focused on Kevin, and Andrew went to roll to his knees, then collapsed in half. His breathing went sharp and high as he pressed his forehead to the ground, curling around himself, and Kevin hiccupped a panicked noise in return, reaching for him with his good hand.

Andrew flinched at the soft touch, at the fingers carding through his hair. It wasn’t so much a calming gesture for Andrew himself, but for Kevin, who could definitely feel the onset of a panic attack creeping up his spine.

Andrew was visibly gritting his teeth when he forced himself up onto his hands and knees, to glare up at Kevin. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he spat, “We’re leaving. Now.”

“Yes,” Kevin had murmured, feeling very odd and detached as he looked back down at his mangled hand.

Now, they are stealing through the empty corridors of the Nest, Andrew’s fingers tight on Kevin’s sleeve, but Kevin tugs them to a stop. Andrew stumbles and drives his shoulder into the wall — to stop from falling over, it seems. “What?” he demands.

“Where are we going?” Kevin manages. The stairs are just up the hall, but they have no destination. No game plan. They will be found, and suffer far worse than simply Riko.

“Away, does it fucking matter? Do you want to stay the loyal dog of the man that just broke your hand, _number two_?”

Kevin’s heartbeat is fast, pounding loud in his ears. He thinks of a letter hidden away in his room. “David Wymack. We can find him.”

Andrew stares, and stands, and wobbles, and Kevin grabs his hand to keep him upright. Andrew stares down at Kevin’s fingers wrapped around his. “Finally some kind of spine, hmm? Are you really flying the Nest, Kevin?”

“We’re done here,” Kevin says, as firmly as his mostly-gone voice can make it. “I’m not…I’m not staying another minute. And you’re coming with me.”

Andrew bares his teeth in a sharp smile, cold but triumphant, and lets Kevin tug him onward and upward, towards freedom.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Prompt](https://foxy-exy.tumblr.com/post/188726845369/you-stayed-of-course-i-did-for-kandrew): "“…you stayed?” “Of course I did.” for kandrew? thank you so much" by anonymous!

Kevin’s lips have been glued to the rim of the vodka bottle for the last hour now.

It’s the anniversary. Of the night his bright future had gotten stomped out of existence. Of…leaving.

His hand aches, phantom pain that stiffens joints and creaks when he curls his fingers. He thinks of the feel of an Exy racquet in his grip, his left hand, where it belongs. Thinks of the physical therapist shaking her head and saying he’s not ready.

He swallows another mouthful.

He is not a Raven anymore. He is a Fox, and he has his father and his coach, his ragtag but determined team. He has…well. He would have Andrew. But Andrew is probably sick of his wallowing, has surely left the room by now, impatient with Kevin Day the washed out alcoholic making an appearance again.

Andrew is usually tired of him.

It’s funny how tiny Andrew Minyard can make Kevin feel so very small. Andrew is the one who professes to caring so little, but his talent is unmistakable. A shot on goal when Andrew is paying attention is swatted so far across court, with such ease, with such precision — Kevin watches and feels drunk off it, sometimes.

But where Andrew claims carelessness for the sport, he seems to care a lot when Kevin loses himself. And Kevin cares a lot for Exy, and Exy gives him a scarred left middle finger back, so Kevin has to lose himself in drink. And Andrew thinks he is a stupid, stupid coward.

Kevin will never be as good as he could have been. He is flawed, and no amount of practice will change that. Andrew doesn’t understand. Kevin’s world is Exy, and now it is gone.

And yet…well, Kevin offered Andrew a world of Exy. Of caring about something. Andrew has never had something, has he? That’s why he followed Kevin to the Nest, and then to the Foxhole.

Maybe they are not so different after all. Futureless, passionless. Yet wanting both so badly.

Kevin huffs a bitter laugh into the bottle. Andrew was right to leave him to his moping. He is utterly pathetic. Number two, indeed.

He falls back into the beanbag, letting his eyes drift. Catches on a small figure leaning next to the door, clad in black.

Kevin scrambles up, vodka forgotten, to stare. Something warm that is not the drink at all is burning in his chest.

Andrew stares impassively back. Keeping watch, keeping Kevin safe, always. He won’t leave Kevin alone, after all.

“…You stayed?”

“Of course I did.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Prompt](https://foxy-exy.tumblr.com/post/188994830227/desperate-hand-holding-with-kandrew): "DESPERATE HAND-HOLDING WITH KANDREW!!" by anonymous!

Kevin cannot breathe.

Riko is coming for him. He will find and punish him for his transgressions — for joining the Foxes, for _leaving_ , for picking himself back up off the floor of the Nest. For letting Andrew put his hand back together, more gently than Kevin would have thought was possible for him.

But Kevin should have taken what he was given, and accepted himself as the has-been Riko made him into.

And now the Ravens are switching districts. Riko is ready to finish what he started.

Andrew. Andrew has to know.

Single-mindedly, Kevin is forcing himself to his feet, out of Wymack’s chair where he had collapsed with the news about the ERC’s decision. His father — god, his _father_ , who doesn’t even _know_ — peers at him with that same kind of gruff worry he always carries, from the corner of Kevin’s tunnel vision. Asks from very far away, “Kevin, where the hell are you going?”

“I have to tell him. He’s…”

“Jesus christ, kid. Sit down, I’ll get your guard dog.”

Either Kevin loses time or Andrew speeds the whole way from the dorm to Wymack’s apartment, because it feels like the next half-formed breath that Kevin tries to drag into his lungs, Andrew is kneeling before him.

Kevin grabs for him because he needs help, catches Andrew’s hand and squeezes with all the strength left in his left and tries very hard not to fall apart.

“We have to — we have to go back, or, or he will kill us this time, Andrew, they transferred, they’re in our district, _he’s coming_ —”

Andrew’s fingers squeeze back, pulse points caught together. It’s all steadying — his heartbeat, his stare, his cheekbone wiped of its number 4.

The first thing Andrew had done when he was able to drag his battered body out of Abby’s bed after they escaped was get his tattoo removed.

Yes, Andrew is a calm rock that will not shatter in the face of Kevin’s brokenness. He never has. Riko never truly broke him.

“We are not Ravens anymore. If he comes near you, I will kill him.”

Kevin clutches their hands — still tightly, tightly entwined — to his cheek, tries not to rock back and forth, but Andrew is not fooled. Kevin cannot look away as Andrew tugs him in, to press their foreheads together.

“Wanting me to succeed at your stupid sport is an equally stupid wish of yours. I will offer you a new oath, Kevin Day. I will play by your side and keep you safe from them. I promise.”

“In exchange for what?” Kevin whispers. “What will I give you?”

Andrew’s eyes flicker down to his lips for a half-second — and then away, gaze turned inward as he abruptly leans back, withdrawing his hand from Kevin’s. Kevin mourns the loss without quite knowing why.

“Who knows. You’ll think of something.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Prompt](https://foxy-exy.tumblr.com/post/190739822948/could-you-write-kandrews-first-kiss): "Could you write Kandrew’s first kiss??" by anonymous!

Kevin does not know if he can hold down the alcohol he’d inhaled in the locker room. His field of vision has narrowed to a black and red jersey across the court. MORIYAMA 01.

Andrew cannot try to kill Riko on the court, in front of everyone. He will be arrested, he’ll never play again. And Kevin will be alone until he, too, is killed — it feels inevitable, darkness all-encompassing, a catastrophic future because Kevin will never be able to exist in a world without Riko, without this terrible dread of impending failure hanging over everything, they are two sides of a coin, after all, and he is —

“Kevin.” The head of an Exy racquet is shoved against his chest, and Kevin instinctively seizes it and looks down to — Andrew, in orange. He is wearing orange, and so is Kevin.

They are Foxes now.

Andrew’s eyes catch his across the slope of the orange and white net. His gaze is even and cool and everything that usually sets Kevin off about him, but tonight Andrew’s cold brown eyes are Kevin’s anchor in a sea of black feathers.

“If Riko doesn’t beat us fairly in front of them all, it is no win,” Andrew says, and Kevin grasps at the words desperately, but he is underwater and they drain away through a sieve.

“I don’t —”

Andrew twists the handle of the racquet, shoving it harder against Kevin’s mile-a-minute heartbeat, his eyes narrowing as he turns in. Kevin’s mouth is dry and sour and he is very strangely breathless.

“He won’t touch you,” Andrew reiterates, impatiently. Then, more quietly, as he lifts his chin, extended far into Kevin’s space, “But even if he tried. I promised you.”

That lands. Andrew promised. But Kevin never promised him anything in return, did he?

Yet whistles are blowing, crowds are yelling, and Andrew must leave his side for the goal. Kevin stands alone on the court floor, and sound cuts off as the door closes, and Riko is there, staring and smiling and playing Kevin like a puppet.

Kevin flexes his fingers, inhales, and as the buzzer sounds, brandishes his racquet — settling into its proper place like it never left — held securely in his scarred left hand.

***

They win.

It’s by a single point and panic-inducing near-goals in the final seconds on Andrew, but they _win_. The only glimpse Kevin gets of Riko is him looking blankly shocked, and then Kevin is whisked away by his team. Riko doesn’t matter. They won.

The Foxes are screaming and celebrating as one and Kevin is loose with disbelieving relief when Andrew catches his shirt front to yank him down. Their helmets knock together and Kevin’s jaw goes slack at the gleam in Andrew’s eyes, wild and almost…almost excited, almost… _victorious_. Andrew’s heavy gloved hand slides over Kevin’s left then, still clutched around his racquet, and Andrew’s grip tightens as a fierce little smile flashes across his face for a half a second and Kevin…

Oh, no, Kevin…

***

Kevin trails behind the others as they stream for the showers, still chattering and happy, and catches Andrew’s sleeve. They’ve discarded gear, stripped down to underthings, and Kevin gets an unimpeded view of Andrew’s hair waving into damp ash blond curls at his temples, sweat still beading slightly across his forehead. He has lost the animation of earlier, the ferocious triumph, just looks cool once more. Slightly tired.

Kevin does not know what to do beyond hold fast to Andrew’s arm. He swears his heartbeat has not slowed since they won, and he thinks maybe Andrew will know why, but Kevin is only just starting to comprehend the reason.

Slowly, he tugs again on Andrew’s sleeve, and Andrew lets his arm be pulled in, only a slight twitch of his jaw betraying his otherwise stony stillness.

Kevin gathers Andrew’s fingers against his chest, over his heart, and Andrew’s face does another, stronger twitch at the frantic pace.

“I’m the wrong twin to ask if you’re looking for help with a heart condition,” is all he says, but Andrew’s voice is faux smoothness, an undercurrent of something not as calm.

“I never gave you anything in return for playing with me,” Kevin says.

Andrew looks away. “You did briefly entertain me by playing a winning game against our ex-captain with your actual playing hand.”

“Andrew.”

Andrew turns a hard glare on him and shoves at Kevin’s chest, backing him into a bench. Kevin drops to the seat and knows his heart picks back up again, knows Andrew can feel it because Kevin still hasn’t let go of his hand with his own broken, put-back-together left one.

Andrew hovers above him, a head taller now, gaze lingering on those rippling white lines interrupting flesh, until his eyes flick to Kevin’s — and they are so close — Andrew steps another pace closer, close enough to bump his nose to Kevin’s, close enough to feel a brush of eyelash — almost close enough to taste his mouth —

“You don’t want this,” Andrew accuses in an undertone, half a breath away. “You are doing what you think I want. This is an exchange.”

“What,” Kevin mumbles as he hovers on the edge of losing himself, and then again, “what?” as he pulls back and replays. “No.”

Andrew stands and stares and tugs ever-so-slightly on the neck of Kevin’s undershirt. “Then what do you want, Kevin Day?”

Kevin’s scar-roped fingers seek and find the steady beat in Andrew’s chest. It, too, is too fast, _thumpthumpthumpthump_. Kevin can only focus on the slight part of his lips. Andrew has been with him all this time, protecting him, _saving_ him, an immovable wall between Kevin and his demons, a steady right hand as Kevin worked up the courage to return to his left. How could he have not seen until now?

“I’ve…I’ve wanted you for a long time, I think.”

Andrew grips fists of thin shirt and drags Kevin back to just-barely-brushing and asks raggedly, “You think, or you know? _Really_ yes?”

Kevin is impatient now. “Fucking of course I know, _yes_ , Andrew —” and he goes to say something biting because that _I think_ came from that unsure, scared part of him that pulls Kevin back, that turns Kevin coward, that does not let him reach for what he truly wants — and Andrew seems to know this, because Andrew knows Kevin like Kevin knows the back of his hand after all this time together, and Andrew shuts Kevin up.

Andrew’s mouth is hot and Kevin is so warm and he cannot think. Andrew stiffens under Kevin’s own curling of fingers in his shirt, pulls away to drag Kevin’s hand away. “Don’t touch,” he hisses before capturing Kevin in a kiss again, and Kevin balls his fists in the hem of his own shirt, dizzy.

He pushes in return when Andrew nudges forward, and nearly falls when, just as quickly, Andrew steps back and away and someone — several someones — step into the room, talking loudly. The rest of the team, asking from far away why they haven’t showered yet.

Andrew’s stare does not break from Kevin in his retreat back to the door leading to the showers. His lips are very pink and his breathing isn’t unaffected, for once, and Kevin feels slightly mollified with the utter uselessness of his legs right now.

He kissed Andrew Minyard. And Andrew Minyard kissed him.

And _god_ , Kevin thinks as he wobbles to his feet to follow after, barely nodding to puzzled teammates as he passes them by.

He wants to do it again.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to chat to me about aftg on tumblr @ [foxy-exy](https://foxy-exy.tumblr.com/)!  
> And here's [& my cosplay instagram](https://www.instagram.com/kayizcray/) with some aftg cosplay on it!  
> -  
> comments keep me goin, please please do leave em ;_;  
> 


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